Serena Williams and Venus Williams were recently handed their wildcards for the doubles tournament of the Wimbledon Championships. Their return to the grass court thrilled the tennis world, including Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, and others.
After months of speculation of her comeback, Serena Williams finally returned to the sport after staying in retirement for almost four years. She hung her rackets in 2022 after competing at the US Open and now made her first appearance at the HSBC Championships. In this tournament she competed in the doubles match alongside Victoria Mboko.
However, due to the latter’s knee injury sustained in the singles tournament, the American’s journey abruptly came to an end, as they had to pull out from the quarterfinals. Days after this, the 44-year-old and her sister, Venus, received their Wimbledon doubles wildcard, and the tennis world cannot be more excited about it. It caught the attention of Gauff, who, in a recent conversation with TNT Sports, expressed her excitement about their entry.
“Serena and Venus won that tournament a lot, both. So I think it was always a tournament that I watched growing up and hoped to win and still hope to win. yeah, she’s definitely one of the main reasons why I decided to play tennis for sure. It’d be really cool, I’m hoping that one day she’ll hit up my line to play doubles. It’d be really, really cool. And if she were to compete in singles, it would be cool to step on the court with her just because she’s a legend and someone I lookd up to and yeah, I’m very excited to be in the same spaces as her again,” said Gauff.
Along with Gauff, Osaka also opened up about their wildcard entry. She reshared Wimbledon’s post of their return on her Instagram story and wrote:
“And I will be seated.”
The former tennis player Eugenie Bouchard was also stunned by the wildcard entry of the Williams sisters, as she wrote on her Instagram story:
“Have we gone back in time?!😍”
The retired Yugoslav and American tennis player, Monica Seles, also chimed in with a sweet reaction that read:
“Thrilled to see this happening and can’t wait for their first match!”
Serena Williams opened up about the reaction of her family to her comeback
Before starting her HSBC Championships campaign, Serena Williams addressed the media in a pre-tournament press conference, where she was widely discussed the decision behind her return to the sport. Amid this, she was asked about the response of her family to her comeback, including her husband, kids, and her extended family.
Responding to this, she opened up about the immense support she received from her family, saying:
“Well, everyone is so supportive, you know, and everyone was like, “What are you thinking?” I’m like, “Well, it’s summer. The kids aren’t in school, so it’s a perfect time to kind of get out there and, you know, just have fun and, you know, see what happens,” said Serena Williams.
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